ChessMaster
by deathcurse
Summary: Lillet Blan had faced off against many devils in her life, but none of them were as devious as one Lt. Colonel Hayate Yagami.  Who will be the Inter-Dimension ChessMaster champion? Crossover with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and shout-outs to other anime.


_**For full enjoyment of this fic, some knowledge of the fan-jokes of **_**Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha **_**would probably be good ^^. Still, enjoy this crack-fic of an inter-dimensional chess tournament!**_

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ChessMaster

Hayate Yagami, Lillet decided, was a devil.

As a Royal Magician, Lillet Blan had dealt with many devils in her life: they were charismatic, terrifying, and always wickedly amused with the frustrations of their victims.

…Exactly like the young woman contemplating her next move from across the chessboard.

She hadn't had a chance to watch the young TSAB officer play earlier, as Lillet had been battling in her own rounds, but if the Britannian prince's frustrated spiel after his loss to the brunette in the earlier round was any indication, Hayate seemed like the devious sort.

For the bragging rights alone, half the chess players here would have freely taken part in this inter-dimensional ChessMaster tournament. Of course, the $10 000 grand prize was nice too, Lillet had to admit. It could give her and Amoretta a nice start to their dream of buying a townhouse together.

Watching her final opponent, Lillet wondered if Hayate and the intelligent, slightly creepily intense young student Lillet had defeated in the semi-finals were related. They both had a lazily amused air to their smiles, although it was reassuring to see that Hayate's grin lacked the edge of malice that the young man's had.

But it was still eerie to see, especially since Hayate was soundlessly chuckling to herself as she rubbed her chin, looking at the board with a diabolical grin.

Now, Lillet had seen real diabolical grins, including one on the weird pale-skinned, feminine-looking demon with red eyes she had faced off with in the preliminary round. He had quite the demonic aura to him, making Lillet want to recoil and shudder from the miasma he seemed to emit even while being quite oddly civil during the match. And she had never seen Mr. Advocat without his classically wicked, devil-may-care smirk—and Grimlet hadn't exactly had lips, so his face had always been twisted in an evil smile…Maybe it was only disturbing for Lillet to see that kind of devilish expression on a sweet-looking young woman?

Lillet drew a breath as Hayate made another seemingly random move that just destroyed yet another one of Lillet's strategies.

She couldn't help blurting out in dismay, "You don't just _do _that!"

"Why not?" Hayate asked cheerfully.

Lillet sighed, eyeing the board again. If they had been playing one of the preliminary rounds she would have swooped in to take advantage of Hayate's newly exposed queen, but since the commander had made it all the way to finals Lillet doubted that things were as obvious as they appeared. Besides, moving her bishop to take Hayate's queen would possibly leave her king open to Hayate's rook two moves later…

"You learn from watching my moves, don't you?" Hyate chuckled, leaning her chin on her laced fingers.

"I'm better at "best two out of three"," Lillet admitted, moving a knight to cover her bishop and to challenge Hayate's rook. She made her own wry observation. "You play best with cautious players."

"What makes you say that?" Hayate's queen moved to take out one of Lillet's rooks, suddenly opening up a lot of pathways on that side of the board.

"You're relying on me being too cautious to take advantage of your reckless style." Lillet moved her own queen to claim one of Hayate's pawns, giving her a chance to target three of her opponent's key pieces.

"That's assuming that I _have _a style," Hayate laughed, moving a pawn up and suddenly Lillet found her queen being challenged by a small row of pawns. "What if I just like doing things on a whim?"

That made Lillet giggle. "Of course that's what you _want _me to think. I don't trust whimsical devils!"

Which, for some reason, made Hayate convulse with laughter. "I know some Devils who aren't sly or whimsical at all, but who are very good at making friends!"

Lillet brought her queen back into a safer location. Immediately, Hayate moved her knight.

"Checkmate."

"Huh?" Lillet stared at the board in shock, then double-checked. "No it's not!"

Hayate started laughing again. "You looked so surprised!"

Lillet chuckled, letting the joke slide. Examining the pieces, she moved her king over a square. "You're partially right though—checkmate for you in three."

"Yes, but you first." Hayate tapped the square where Lillet's queen will be in the next move, then tipped her king over. "Your win—congratulations."

"It might not have been for sure," Lillet protested, reluctantly shaking hands with Hayate. "You could have turned it around depending on what you decided to do with your knight—"

"Of course it would have been," Hayate replied, smiling. "We have different strategies after all—you save your best moves for the end-game. I let my friends do it for me instead."

"Didn't you want the prize?" Lillet couldn't help asking, curious and intrigued.

Hayate only laughed as if the question delighted her. "I'm glad you won! It was more important for me to prove a point to my friends and co-workers."

"What point?"

"That there _is _someone more cunning and devious than I am!"

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_**Author's Note: Yes, Dezo finally succeeded in enticing me into writing for this fandom =P.**_

_**This was a crack-y idea that I thought of after chatting with Dezopenguin about my **_**actual**_** first **_**GrimGrimoire **_**fic idea, when I joked about Lillet and Hayate being Chessmasters in their respective franchises—and since I was in a crack-y mood, I whipped this up =).**_

_**Trivia - This was an 8-person Chessmaster tournament, although only the first 5 were referenced in-story: **_**Lillet Blan (**_**GrimGrimoire), **_**Hayate Yagami (**_**Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha), **_**Lelouch Lamperouge/vi Britannia (**_**Code Geass), **_**Light Yagami (**_**Death Note), **_**Naraku (**_**Inuyasha), **_**Akio Ohtori (**_**Revolutionary Girl Utena), **_**Sosuke Aizen (**_**Bleach) and the **_**Count of Monte Christo (**_**Gankutsuou/**_**original novel).**

_**Fans of Dezo's work would recognize some shout-outs! ^_-**_


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